Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-06-20
THE SHAKESPEARE MYTH.
Attempt to Provo That the Bard of Avon
Did Not Write.

Attempt to Prove That the BARD OF avon
Did Not Write.
Ignatius DoGely In North American REVIEW
The traditions which have come down
to US concerning Shakespeare do not, any
of them, point to the habits Of & scholar
or gentleman. The first glimpse we
have Of the family was when John Shakes
peare, MS father, was fined twelve pence,
in 1862, for maintaining IS conspicuous
sterquinarium before his house in Henley
street =" The first tradition we
have concerning Shakespeare himself Is
that OF an ale-drinking contest with the.
"Bidford topers," while yet young
man, IN which he became so beastly
drunk that he could not reach home, but
slept all night by the roadside. We are
told that he was q deer-stealer, and
riven to all "mauner of unluck
mess" and that "Sir Thomas Lucy had
him oft imprisoned and whipped"
The last tradition we have of him is
that his death was the result OF drinking
bout with Drsyton and Ben Johnson.
| Neither his father or mother could read
or write, and HalliWell Phillips doubts II
there was q book in the house OF mis-
parents. There is no reference to any
book or papers in Shakespeare's will HIS
daughter Judith signed her name with
cross. Imagine the daughter OF Herbert
Spencer or William Z. Gladstone (snd
the author Of the plays was greater,
wiser and more learned man than either
of them) unable to read or write. II IS
| iucorceivab!e.
Shakespeare himself never claimed the
nlavs. He did not put his name on the
title leaf of any OF them; for the name on
the title leaf is in every case, civilian
Shakespeare" very often printed with
hyphen, thus, "Shake-speare," while the
three signatures to his Will and the Two
others TO legal instruments, these being
the only autographs we have OF him, ere
in each case spelled ShskspeTe, which
must have been pronounced Sheckspere.
And this seems 10 have been the accepted
pronunciation in StTatiord. In the re-
CORDS Of the Town Council the name OF
Shskespeare's father occurs 1876 times, land
in not one instance is it spelled Shakes
pesre It Is gwen as Schackspe, SAacke'
sper, Shaksper, ShaXpeare and ShaXper
In uthe poets" marriage bond IL Is
"Shagspere."
Bqcon's dearest friend, Sir Tobie Mat
thew, was undoubtedly in MS secret. 81
Tobie writes Bacon letter in acknowl
edgement of the gift of "a great and noble
token" presumed to be the Shakespeare
folio of 1928, and he adds this postscript
"The most prodigious wit that ever
knew, of my nation and of this side OF the
ses. is CT your lordship's name, though NJ
be known by another" $50
Bacon, in the sixth book OF "De Aug
mentis,b says:
Gas for writing, it is performed eitbel
by the common alphabet, which is use(
by everybody, or by secret and private
one, agreed upon by particular persons
which they call ciphers."
That is to say, a cipher is a secre
alphabet. And we find Bacon CORE
spending with Sir Tobie, and referring tt
aworks of his recreation" and to "work'
: of the alphabet" And then, about thu
, time the Shakespeare folio of 1928, IL
, which, be it remembered, half the plays
, sppear for the first time, is about to 6'
| published, we find Bacon writing to ST
Tobie that it is time to ''put the alphaoe